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Pain Meunier - and having fun with shaping

March 30, 2011 - 9:28am

txfarmer

Pain Meunier - and having fun with shaping

This recipe is from "Advanced Bread and Pastry". Using white and whole wheat flour, wheat germ, and cracked wheat (aka. bulgur, my new favorite bread ingredient), the bread is super fragrant and packful of flavors. I wanted to convert the formula to use sourdough, but was busy preparing for and running a half marathon last weekend, so stuck to the poolish version in the book.

In my last post, I tried some interesting shapes for baguette, this time, I tried another shaping method from the same site, you can find the video here.

5. divide into two parts, preshape into oval, rest for 20min, shape according to instruction here

6. proof seam down on parchment paper for 50min (25C)

7. flip the bread so it's seam side up, and bake @ 450F for 40min, with steam for the first 15min.

Really like how the shape turned out

Thought all the rolling and twisting would affect the crumb, but what a pleasant surprise, full of holes and very open for a 66% hydration dough (not counting water in the soaker).

Flavor is out of this world, I REALLY like the combo of ww and cracked wheat. For my sandwich loaf, I soaked crack wheat in hot water(about 2 hours), this time in cold water (overnight), I can't really tell the difference. Both method soften the grain without turning them into mush.

Plan to make this one again very soon, probably a sourdough version. Oh yeah, the half marathon went well too. I finished in 1:45, crossing the finish line with my running partner, very good race.

I think I'm going to try this bread out. In your post I think you mentioned that you'd like to try a sourdough version. I read in the BBGA Bread lines about a walnut levain that contains a fermented soaker. I think they added the "sour seed" at 10% of the weight of the cracked wheat and let it ferment 12 hours. Seems like it might be interesting to try that out with this formula. Naturally fermented cracked wheat soaker and a yeasted poolish. How do you think the yeast quantity should be adjusted if I were to try this out?

I have found these videos to be served at only a little above dial-up speed. That's ridiculously slow; twenty minutes or more to download a one to two minute video. My solution is to download to disc, then view the local copy in an flv viewer. I use Ant's downloader/viewer, available for Firefox and IE.

Everything about that looks superb - the crust, the crumb, the shaping.

The photography looks great too. I really like the way that you feature the grains used alongside the final twisted bread. It really looks like a shot from a professional baking book. Looks great on the Home page.

It looks like my kind of dough too. I mostly do mixed grain breads at around 68% as I like the nuttier taste and am finding that I can get good crumb development at that hydration. Would just need some bulgur wheat. I feel I've gone a bit mad with different flours, recently, but I could use bulgur for pilau too...Think I might start with a baguette or torpedo though - would have to work up to torsadé...

I would be interested to know if you do a sourdough version. I am finding it quite hard to readjust to the smell of baker's yeast after sourdough and raisin water leavens.

I did have a quick question. Did the original version of the formula (AB&P) call for cracked wheat or bulgur? Bulgur and cracked wheat aren't the same thing. Cracked wheat is simply that - cracked grains of wheat. Bulgur is wheat too, but it has been partially pre-cooked. I suspect the bread would be terrific with either, though different, and I'm intrigued.

I am aware of the difference, however, bulgur is often also called "crack wheat", which is confusing. In this case, the book says "cracked wheat", but only calls for a cold soak for 2 hours (to overnight), which makes me think it's bulgur. Either way, it's going to work.

I have been reading the comments on cracked what and bulgur - and wondering why they need to be soaked? I always add either bulgur or steelcut oats to my sourdough boules and hadn't ever heard or thought of pre-soaking them. Maybe the overnight refrigeration softens them enough? They are visible in the crumb but not at all crunchy. Any ideas? A.

Bulgur absorbs a lot of water (for this formula, by the end of the overnight soaking, all water was absorbed), slowly, which means if you add them directly in the dough, the dough would seem wet enough at first, but slowly become too dry as bulgur absorbs water. The same applies to other seeds like oats, flaxseeds. Pre-soaking can help gauging appropriate hydration level during dough mixing.

In addition soaking also helps soften the grain. This bread uses poolish, and only takes about 4 hours to make, which might not be enough for the bulgur grain to soften.

txfarmer, I noticed in the book, the final dough calls for a small amount of malt. It isn't specified in any of the mix formulas. I'm guessing you didn't use it. The coloring in the crust certainly doesn't need any more richness, it's almost red as it is.

This would be a fun shaping method for making cinnamon bread for the kids, or even arrange several in a star (points outward) and the center piece round (or missing ...like a wreath). Someday...

Beautiful bread though, and thanks for sharing. I'm going to try making it soon. Planned on it this weekend but was just too busy with my daughter's birthday (and 10 giggly-girl party ...all of them 13 years old plus or minus, plus one boyfriend).

I have a couple questions though-did you put salt in the poolish? This is how it looks to me in your formula? And also if you autolyse you are not supposed to have salt in it either, or am I wrong here?

In the strict sense, autolyse is done without salt since salt tightens gluten. It should also done without yeast to avoid over rise. However when yeast is in the poolish, we have to add it to the dough to get the right hydration, so we comprise and allow the yeast in poolish to be added in the dough during autolyse. Same thing with salt. While it does tightens the dough to some degree, when necessary, we can add it during autolyse without too much troulbe. Tell you the truth, a lot of times I get lazy and just dump everything together to autolyse. Can't really tell a difference so far. There must be a difference, but with bread baking, there are so many variables anyway, this one thing won't be the deal breaker.

Now I have yet another question. About the poolish again. Whenever I made poolish it usually calls for the same amount of water and flour. So would this in your formula be a biga then? I am confused lol

Now I have yet another question. About the poolish again. Whenever I made poolish it usually calls for the same amount of water and flour. So would this in your formula be a biga then? I am confused lol

The only difference between a poolish and a biga is the hydration, right? (Sorry if this hijacks the thread). As far as I know, I haven't seen any difference in say, the temperature or time or ingredients otherwise, so it's just the hydration??

Thanks for the recipe and detailed instructions. BTW, those are nice photos and they convinced me to give your bread a try. In fact, I placed an order last night with Bob's Red Mill so I'll have all of the ingredients.

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